SalemNews.com, Salem, MA

SALEM - Mayor Kim Driscoll will announce today that Halloween is in danger of being canceled.

Or at least that's what she'll tell an actor playing a TV news reporter this afternoon during the shooting of a seven-minute movie at Salem Common designed to promote the city's new Haunted Passport marketing program.

Halloween is, indeed, safe. But the plot behind the satirical movie, which began shooting yesterday, revolves around the concept that the new passports have been stolen in an attempt to "ruin Halloween."

"We have had one of the worst robberies in the history of Salem," the mayor tells a news reporter from the fictitious WSLM-TV. "Our Haunted Passports are missing."

"Mayor Driscoll," the reporter asks, "is Halloween in danger of being canceled?"

"Yes," Driscoll responds. "Yes, it is."

From there, a group consisting of a psychic, a Sherlock Holmes look-alike, a ditzy teenager and a nerd with a metal detector set out to investigate the missing passports. Their quest takes them to tourist hot spots around Salem: the Friendship, Salem Common, the Waterfront Hotel and Spellbound Tours.

The Haunted Passport program, which the city unveiled two weeks ago, is a $13 card that gives discounts at local shops, restaurants and other tourist destinations. Most of the deals are good through April 30, which local business owners hope will entice tourists to return to Salem during off-peak months.

The challenge now is finding a way to spread the word. Instead of breaking the bank on prime-time TV commercials, King Fish Media, which created Haunted Passport, decided to turn to the Internet. Once the movie is edited, they plan to release it on the video Web site YouTube and send it out through e-mail, hoping it will create a buzz around the new program.

"Since this is year one, we want to keep costs as low as we can," said Nichole Clarke of King Fish Media.

The Internet movie is intended do just that and could potentially reach a larger audience than a 30-second ad on a local TV affiliate.

"Anyone from across the world can see this," said Barry Dodd of The Entertainment Experience, the production company filming the ad. "It's definitely made it easier to reach people."

"It's just another medium to get the message across," Driscoll said. "If you get on (YouTube), it's pretty wide-ranging, from parents with newborn babies posting something to home videos of the Willows Horribles Parade."

Yesterday afternoon, a film crew of two and a cast of about 15 actors took over Cilantro, a Mexican restaurant on Derby Street, to film a scene where a waitress (played by Cilantro owner Esther Marin) suddenly turns into the Grim Reaper. As Dodd's camera rolls, the frightened team on the hunt for the Haunted Passport spring up from the dinner table and run out the front door, onto the sidewalk, leaving startled and confused passers-by wondering what was happening.

"It's a nice opportunity to advertise my place and help the city to run its Haunted Passport program," said Marin, who celebrated her restaurant's sixth anniversary on Wednesday. "I think (the program) is going to bring more business."

Today, the crew will shoot the bulk of the movie, including a scene at Salem Common that will feature dozens of ordinary Salem residents as extras. Driscoll will also make her YouTube debut.

"I'm playing the mayor - a real cameo," Driscoll said. "I've been given a script. I don't have my Screen Actors Guild card, so I won't be getting scale pay, but they've been giving me an outline to work with."

Once shooting wraps up this afternoon, crews will edit the scenes together and add sound and special effects. It's expected to hit the Internet sometime in August.

"It's just a neat way for us to do something a little different this Halloween," Driscoll said, "especially something geared toward raising revenue for the city in a creative way."

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Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at 978-338-2526 or by e-mail at ccassidy@ecnnews.com.